‘Someone has to do it, and I want it to be me’: How one DSST alumna found her path in aerospace

It was 7th grade, the world was in the middle of a pandemic, and Sammie Nguyen (Class of 2026) was sitting in front of a screen in an online classroom at DSST: College View. Her teacher, Ms. Crystal Purvis, now Dr. Purvis, was walking students through different engineering fields. One of them was aerospace.

Nguyen had always been drawn to the subject in a vague, background-hum kind of way. But hearing it named, explained, and presented as a real, reachable path made it land differently.

But clarity and confidence are not the same thing. And for Nguyen, one came well before the other.

"[My confidence] came in waves,” she said. “There were moments of 'I can do this!' followed by 'Maybe I should choose something more common,' then right back to 'Someone has to do it, and I want it to be me.'"

Early on, she doubted herself because she didn't see people who looked like her in the photos of aerospace engineers she saw online or in the media. But the community at DSST: College View quietly and consistently pushed back against that doubt.

"Every teacher and staff member I met — from homeroom advisors to math teachers, college counselors, and admin — offered nothing but encouragement," Nguyen said. "Their belief in me slowly built my own belief in myself. Even now, I know I could text or call any CV staff member and hear, 'You're doing amazing,' and they'd mean it."

This spring, she was invited to participate in a retreat to help inform the DSST network AI strategy, bringing a student perspective into a room full of organizational leaders. She admits she expected to be more of a passive participant. That's not what happened.

"Walking into a room full of people with so much authority, I expected to just listen quietly and agree where I could," Nguyen said. "But that's never how DSST operates. Every opinion, thought, and idea I shared was taken seriously. They didn't just hear me, they considered what I said."

That experience, she said, was both validating and clarifying. It reinforced something she'd felt throughout her time at DSST: College View: that DSST's commitment to students isn't just a tagline.

"Before, during, and after the retreat, one message kept coming up: 'DSST works for you — the students.' As simple and straightforward as that sounds, it was genuinely comforting."

Now Nguyen is a freshman at the University of Virginia, where she's pursuing her interest in aerospace. The transition, she says, has been smoother than many of her peers might expect, and for that she credits the habits DSST built in her long before move-in day.

“I stay organized, meet deadlines, and manage my time well because those expectations were part of daily life at DSST,” she shared. “On top of that, the academic rigor at DSST played a huge role in preparing me for UVA (Go Hoos!). Taking multiple AP classes taught me how to handle fast-paced instruction, heavy workloads, and complex material without feeling overwhelmed … DSST didn't just prepare us academically; they prepared us to function confidently and independently in demanding environments.”

While her confidence may have wavered throughout high school, Nguyen’s teachers always instilled hope in even the simplest ways.

“As cliché as it sounds, teachers throughout my high school years would quote, ‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!’, Nguyen said. “This showed me the fear of ‘missing’ and ‘failing’ are opportunities for redirection! You will get to where you want to be and eventually see how everything contributed to your character.”

For the middle schoolers now sitting in the classrooms where her own story began, Nguyen has a message: "Be your full, authentic self because you never know what you could accomplish.”

“A lot of the change you see today happened because someone didn't fit in," Nguyen said. "Be the difference that eventually becomes the norm. Don't let anything, especially doubt, stop you from pursuing what you want."